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Restaurant Salt Ban Is Purely a New York Thing
Wolves Could Be Making Return To Illinois
New Exhibit Storms Into the MSI
Here's betting we're not the first nor last with that headline, but either way, surfing could be coming to five Chicago beaches soon, so sayeth the Sun-Times. A group of surfers has finally gotten their way and the Chicago Park District may just oblige them by opening up to five city beaches for the purposes of surfing.
Under review for offseason (Labor Day until Memorial Day) surfing are the Kathy Osterman, Montrose Avenue, 57th Street and Rainbow beaches; the Park District is also exploring the possibility of opening up the 41st Street Beach for year-round surfing.
Vince Deur, founder of the Lake Michigan chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and major proponent of Chicago surfing, said, "Now that we have a toe in the water, so to speak, we want to do it right and keep a good thing going. Surfing is not a crime." No, but those skin-tight wetsuits sure are. Hey-O!
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waves can definitely get large in spring/fall. ive never understood the ban in the first place..plenty of people do it in indiana and in the north burbs.
If you want real waves come to Australia. 100% pure adrenaline!
It wouldn't have even dawned on me that surfing might be illegal in Chicago... Do we even get surf-worthy waves in Chicago?
They do mean "wind"-surfing, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvjJ64vWTIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YunBW7ELDzo
Its possible. The problem (if you view it as one) is that the best waves are in winter, and at the front of storms.
And you dont need an ocean, or even a lake. River surfing is popular in a lot of countries as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTct6xBIc8
Why was it illegal? That makes no sense.
My guess is that it's illegal in part to protect swimmers from being run over by inattentive surfers. There's probably also a drowning issue in the off season, at least from the city's point of view.
Have you ever tried swimming in Lake Michigan? Other than some dedicated places where lifeguards watch you, it's pretty much banned at all the beaches in Chicago's bizarre quest not to lose a single person to drowning in the lake at the expense of thousands of people enjoying a swim. Instead, the beaches are for wading. If I remember correctly, "the beaches are not for swimming" was an actual quote from a Park District employee in an article the Reader did on this years ago. So yeah, it doesn't surprise me that surfing wasn't allowed.
Aha! Here's the article